A New Way to Family... (Luke 8:19-21) - Podcast Episode 24

Hey, friend, Welcome to another episode of the KPC Podcast, and

we hope that this finds you enjoying your week this summer

week. Whether you're listening on

Monday, that would be ambitious because we're just recording

this on Monday. So if you're listening on

Monday, like, well done. Very likely later on in your

week, which we realize is a wonderful thing.

So I've got Elena with me and a welcome back.

This is like Round 2 for you. Yeah.

Great. Yeah, thanks coming back.

This is really fun, glad to do it again.

So we're going to jump into a conversation on Luke, chapter 8,

Luke 8 · chapter mention

three verses only. It was 19/20/21, which is

Jesus's redefining of what family looks like inside the

Kingdom. And it's a really pared down

version in Luke of other accounts, like Mark has this

account. It's a lot longer in Luke.

It's just really small. So I'm going to read it and then

we've got some questions. We received a few questions from

folks in the congregation, which is great.

And so we're going to tackle some of those and then I think

have a few questions to hopefully help you continue to

have your own discussions around these these verses.

And I think in this sense that the challenge we were talking

about this ahead of recording, Elena, you mentioned like the

challenge to really wrestle with how this, you know, if you call

yourself a follower of Jesus and if you're trying to live your

life inside of community, how it challenges you kind of

regardless of what your relationship to family has been,

whether it's good or bad, whether it's fraught with

conflict or whether it's full of love and joy for most people,

somewhere in between it. This really challenges, I think

many of us in our understanding of what family is, what it is

inside the Kingdom and how we're to act toward one another.

Like it changes our relationships inside the church.

And so all that we're going to get into all of it.

Let me read the passage 1st and and then we can jump in.

So I preached from the NIV. I'm going to read from the ESV.

And so there's a few words that are different.

Probably don't need to touch on that, but this is what it sounds

like in the ESV. So then his mother and his

brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of

the crowd. And he was told Your mother and

brothers are standing outside desiring to see you.

But he answered them. My mother and my brothers are

those who hear the word of God and do it.

Yeah, great. So we are going to write jump

right in with a question we received on e-mail.

So thank you so much for everyone continuing to send in

those questions to us. This person said that you used

that bonded set analogy in the sermon, especially in the

context of golf, and you touched on it.

But can you expand on the church community?

We Christians are often accused of setting up what is similar to

this bonded set. You are now in the club and

there are expectations. How can we overcome that

perception that there is this checklist of things that we have

to take off in order to be in? And also how can we walk

alongside friends who might consciously or unconsciously set

up those boundaries or those checklists?

So can you expand on that a bit? Yeah, couple questions for us to

discuss within the one within the one question, right.

I, I love that somebody's wrestling this out because I

think that and I like, I wasn't hard on churches so much in the

in the sermon, like directly. Yeah, but I think it's really

easy for people to see that churches can fall into that

bounded set mentality of like group organization.

And you know, I gave the I gave the caveat like the disclaimer,

I'm like, I'm not a mathematician.

I realize like, you know, this is there's some math involved

here on, you know, at, at at like a theory level with these,

these terms, but just very simply for those people who

might be listening who or watching who don't, who didn't

see the sermon or don't understand.

So, so bounded set is a way of talking about groups that

organize together. So this is within mathematics

and like set theory, we're not going to get into that.

It's also used by sociologists to talk about how groups of

people organize together, and that's sort of what I lean into

more. Feels more like our domain as as

a church. So if you picture a box and for

those of you who are listening, I'm drawing a box with my hands

here. But like picture a box and it's

very clear if you are a member of the community, you're inside

the box. And if you're not a member of

the community, you're outside the box.

And the box is very clear. Like it's, it's bold, like bold

lines, clear delineation, very clear expectations on what gets

you membership within and what excludes you from membership on

the outside. So you can start to think like

churches fall into this, this way of organizing.

Yeah, somewhat, maybe somewhat naturally in some sense.

But like, I think it's problematic that we do where

it's perceived that there are insiders and outsiders and it's

very clear who those insiders and outsiders are.

So one of the criticisms that I received early on in my

ministry. And so like, this was my first

church. I had somebody invite me out for

lunch and like, I won't, you know, absolutely would would

never share the name of this person, right?

But like had somebody invite me out for lunch and sit me down

and explain to me why I needed to be wearing a suit and tie,

OK. And preaching.

So, you know, like this was very important to this person that I

dress a certain way and look a certain way when I preach.

And I understand that there are some people who still like

probably in our own congregation would, would lean in that

direction, right? But it gave me an opportunity to

say this person listen, like what you might see as haphazard,

like I do very intentionally. So I wear jeans or like

whatever, like khaki pants, whatever I'm wearing.

But like, I don't wear a suit, like, right, I don't wear a

suit. I don't wear a collar.

Like some many clergy wear collars.

I don't do that on a Sunday. And I don't do it for a very

specific reason. And the reason is that I want

anybody to be able to walk in and see from the start that goes

on the plaque, those people on the platform who are leading

look like me. Yeah.

Like there's an immediate ability to to identify with

those of us who are leading. Yeah.

And so I want somebody to walk in and feel like, oh, this is a

place that I can belong before I believe.

And that is like the main idea, I think, that pushes us away

from being a bounded set. So bounded set would be you need

to believe the same thing as us and prove it or demonstrate it

before you can belong. It's a qualifier for belonging

that you believe the certain theological doctrines.

You have the same language, you dress and look, maybe dress and

look a certain way as part of it.

But those things become the qualifiers for membership, like

for belonging, for being a part of the community.

Hmm. And what we want to say is no,

none of it is. You can belong here before you

believe the certain things, like believe the same things we

believe before you, even before you behave certain ways, right,

Which is some language that that's not my language, like

there's a language that other churches use as well, but that

your, your belief can change. We understand that and can

shift. And it doesn't need to be

exactly what we believe before you can belong.

And neither do you need to, you know, behave certain ways before

you can belong. You can show up.

So I, you know, I want someone to walk in the door to the

church because they feel like that's the place they need to be

and they don't immediately feel like they're faced with, oh, I

don't fit in here. I don't belong because of what

they are wearing or because of the baggage that they're

carrying in because of any number of different reasons,

right? So I think the bounded set, like

we can look like a bounded set in some ways, right?

We have expectations on members. Like, I expect that people who

are in like if you are in, if you call yourself a Christian,

if you've, you know, made a public profession of faith, if

you've joined as a member officially, if you've been

baptized, like there are expectations on our community to

live a certain way, but they're not barriers to entry into the

community. And I think that's the that's

the distinction between the two. So we're what I would like to

call us would be centre set, which is that we're all, we're

all facing Jesus. We're moving in that direction.

You know, we're going to be at different distances from the

centre. Yeah.

But what's more important to me is that your heart and your

intention is directed toward Jesus.

You're moving in that in that direction and that matters more

than what you wear on a Sunday or what you're able to prove to

me that you believe what what scripture you've memorized.

Like memorizing Scripture is a great thing to do, but none of

that will be like, hey, like we got to check your like Jesus

card at the door before you can enter into who we are and what

we do and how we worship. No, like we want, we want you

here. Yeah.

And you can belong. So the difference is, is it a

barrier to entry or not? Yeah, That's what I think the

major difference is. And then once you're in, I go,

yeah, expectations. Like I have expectations on our

on our people. Yeah, I expect, and I'm going to

give this plug because you won't.

But like kids, men, I expect like when we baptize baby,

right. So I had to I had this

conversation with somebody this weekend and this this individual

was saying like, hey, like if you, if you, if you stand up

there as part of the church and promise to help raise this kid,

like shouldn't you also be volunteering in Sunday school?

And like, yes, absolutely. So like here's this guy who's

like, you know, he's like their family, they're all in and

volunteering and love it. I'm not also not going to share

the name of this person, but like this was this was the his,

his point was like, you know, we as a congregation, we make

commitments to our kids to help raise them.

They should be teaching Sunday school.

Like they should be volunteering.

And also I'll give that plug because your kids been director

and you're always looking for more volunteers, people who are

going to be invested and buy into our culture and how we are

here, how we are with the kids. Like, you know, we're going to

ask certain things out of you if you're volunteering.

There are expectations, but it's not like it's it's not a barrier

to entry into the community. Same with tithing.

Like, you know, I think I say when when we talk about our

tithes and offerings, it I do expect that like it's it is

biblical to talk about and have an expectation around tithe and

not like tithes and offering. Yeah, but it's not like a

Netflix subscription that buys you privilege.

And again, there's another difference.

So is it a barrier to entry or not?

Are people excluded because they do certain things or not?

Like that would be bounded set. And does it buy you privilege

again? So now we're talking more

bounded set. So, you know, we go through

lengths here so that almost nobody knows what anybody gives.

Like that's very important. And so like, I like me as lead

pastor, I don't know what individuals give.

And and that's like, I will never know.

Like that's not, it's something I'm very like very adamant

about. And we're very, very like,

there's very specific policies that we follow for our

denomination around all of this. So so that it's not like, well,

that person gives X number of dollars, we better make sure

they're happy. Yeah.

Otherwise they might leave and then we might lose their money,

right. Like that's the kind of dark

hole that it goes down. But again, tithing is it's an

expectation that you are financially invested in this

thing, but it doesn't buy you privilege.

It doesn't get you an extra vote.

And what matters is the heart posture that you take as you do

it. Again, like their scripture all

through this, but like cents, dollars, hundreds of dollars,

thousands of dollars, Like what matters is that you're convicted

by God to do this thing and to respond because God asks it of

you. It doesn't buy you any

privilege. So yeah, barrier of entry,

that's a good way to talk about it.

Privilege also a good way to talk about it.

And that's where you can start picking apart the difference

between what would be bounded set.

Is this excluding inside or outside our language or is it

centre set? Is it about right and good

expectations of how we are to live together?

Because again, they get the gospel ought to convict us to

live differently. So we live differently and that

requires doing things. But it's not going to get you

entry. It's not going to get you

privileged. It's not going to get you like

extra time with like a pastor or whatever.

Yeah. It's just that's not how we

roll. So I think that's some of my

language around answering that question and distinguishing

between the. Two, yeah.

And I think you did a good job on Sunday when you were

explaining how in the culture that Jesus was in, it was almost

like those hard lines around entry because it was lineage.

If you were a descendant of this tribe, Abraham, you know, you

could trace your lineage. You were very clearly in this

family or outside of this family.

And there was really not, yeah, that kind of cross crossing over

in or out. And Jesus then comes and with

the statement he, he does break down that barrier to entry that

was purely blood and family. But then with that, he opens it

up. He opens up that that idea of

anyone can come in. But he also issues a challenge

there because there is like you saying, there is that

expectation it is those who hear God's word and puts it into

practice. And we might even tie that back

a bit to the parable of the sower, which we looked at a

while ago, where it is not just hearing, but it is it taking

root inside of you and it producing something.

So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more around

that idea of why is it hard sometimes to to hear and do and

how those two things have to go together?

Sure. So this is great and I

appreciate that you took us back to the sewer because that like

this really in some way is the conclusion to that.

Like I didn't call it that in the sermon, but I think there

was 1 iteration of my sermon. There was an early draft where I

had, you know, essentially set it up as like this.

It's a three-part series miniseries that we did really on

the same idea, which is the parable of the Sower.

And it starts in, in eight, 1:00-ish.

But I think 4 is when we're really into the, the actual

parable. But from the beginning of

chapter 8, we've got the parable of the sower and then Jesus

teaching about parables, the purpose of, of them.

And then we had the, the lamp under a jar.

Like nobody lights a lamp and then hides it away.

So again, like that's the language developing the language

of the parable in many ways. And then we've got the Jesus

mother and brothers. So it's it's really 3 moves that

Luke is making and wants us as readers to see all connected

together. That it is about like Jesus is

making three times in a row this same point that what matters is

your heart posture that you are receptive and wonder and

question and think and contemplate hope for all of

those things like that you essentially that you are

remaining open enough to what Jesus is speaking so that it

lands and in the gardening language it takes root right in

the lamp language. You're not hiding it and in this

language of of Jesus mother and brothers you, you're hearing it

and doing it. I think what is pushed a little

bit forward in this final section is so when I look at

those 3 movements, I see in the parable of the sower, Jesus

talks about us hearing the word and and receiving it in a way

that transforms us. And really so at the end it

says, you know, As for that, that is As for the seed in the

good soil, there are those who hearing the word, the word, hold

it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with

patience. So it's this idea of allowing

the word of God and we can talk different ways about that.

Jesus here, I think, is talking both about his own teaching and

himself as the word of God. So in John One, that's how Jesus

is himself described. So it really in receiving, in

receiving the teaching of the Kingdom and in receiving the

Kingdom, ultimately what we're talking about is receiving

Jesus. Yeah.

So you can't receive the teaching of Jesus without also

receiving Jesus. You can't live into the Kingdom

of Jesus without accepting who he is.

Like all of like it is synonymous.

Jesus is the Kingdom come and he is his teachings embodied.

So I think it's about allowing the teaching of Jesus, the

Kingdom who he is to, to hold fast to take root in your life

in a way that starts to transform it.

And then in in the lamp under a jar, he goes and immediately

says, take care. Then how you hear.

So again, he's he's, he's pushing forward this idea that

how you hear, how you listen, how you are intentional about

about doing that matters. And it it becomes important to

not, you know, light a lamp and then just stifle it, like put it

under like it needs the right environment to to remain lit,

but it also requires intentionality there.

Like you, you are intentional about lighting a lamp and

putting it where it is to be seen and useful and helpful.

It actually does something. And in the same way, he says,

hey, like, listen, like this isn't just for you, right?

You're not, you're not a lamp lit just for your own sake.

It's not just so you can look good, Like, hey, look at

everybody looking at me. It is to do something like

there's a purpose to it. And then here in the mother and

brothers, what what he says is. At the end of the day, like,

yeah, yeah, the most privileged relationship that you could

think of in that day. In many ways, he now alters to

say this is how important hearing and doing inside of the

Kingdom is. Like it represents being mother

and brother, like it represents being family.

So, so like it's almost like Jesus saying, I get this through

your head. There's nothing more important

than this because there's, there's no, there's no familial

bond, there's no lineage, There's no, you know, piece of

who you are that that really defines who you are greater than

your relationship to Jesus. So I think that's the piece.

It's a, it's a flip on, on identity in some ways and on

understanding who we are and what's most important about us.

So the the piece of hope that I hope that I hope that I really

wanted people to hear in it as well, is that Jesus is taking,

and you alluded to this, Jesus is taking something very

specific and almost impossible to breakdown or break into.

Like you're not changing your family of origin.

You're not changing your lineage.

Like that's not, we don't do that.

Like it's like it just is what it is.

And Jesus is saying like, alright, like we're not going to

think about membership into family inside the community,

inside the the Kingdom of God as that strict and limiting.

It's actually that's blown open to anybody and everybody who

hears the word and then acts on it.

So I think my mind can go to like it is like it's another

thing to do or it's A to do list or it's a checklist or it's how

do I know I'm doing good enough? Is there, do I have to pass a

test? Like how do I prove that I know

it? What does doing it actually look

like? Do I have to do it all the time?

Like what if I forget and like, what if I fail?

What if I fall like all of those things and when really it's

intended to be this hope filled realization of oh anybody.

This is open to anybody now amazing.

It doesn't matter what your lineage is.

In other words, it doesn't matter what your history is, no

matter what your past is like this is for everybody.

And that in my mind I go, OK, so that that's just grace and

hopeful and, um, blown wide open as opposed to being really pared

down. The early church really wrestled

with us, right? Yeah.

So like I was flipping over to Galatians earlier just just

quickly because like the early church really wrestled with.

OK, so the Jesus Jesus called Jewish followers.

Now eventually what we see is the the churches is expanded and

includes Gentile believers. And then you get this conflict

be like the Jewish Christians are like no, you got to become

Jewish 1st and then become Christian.

And Paul's got to wrestle this out with some of his early

churches. And that's where we get that

great line where Paul's writing to this church in Galatia, who

would be a mixed group of like Jewish Christians, non Jewish

Christians, everybody trying to live life together.

And he he says now that faith has come, we are no longer under

a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all he uses sons of God

through faith. But this is just this is

language of family. For as many of you as we're

baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is no, he says no longer Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor

free male, female, you're all one in Christ Jesus.

So he says a lot of the things that used to gain membership.

So here we're talking like in in other words, church.

These are categories of privilege and non privilege.

Yeah, right. These are categories that used

to buy, for lack of a better word, or gain you entry into a

community. So it's not about it's not about

your heritage or your Greek, doesn't matter.

What matters is that you've been baptized into Christ.

You put on Christ one of those would have been seen as

privileged, right? So the Jewish community of

Christians thought themselves privileged over the Gentile

community of Christians. Slave or free, same thing, male

or female. Like none of these things gain

you anything or lose you anything.

What matters is that you've been baptized into Christ and have

put on Christ in Paul's language.

So you've heard the Word and you've begun doing it.

Yeah. In other words.

Right. And again, this is like one of

the things that could have included in the sermon didn't

make it in. There's lots that always doesn't

make it in. Yeah, but Paul's not saying that

there's, you know, no longer things that that are distinct

about us. Yeah.

Like he's not saying destroy every category and, you know,

forget everything that once was. But he's saying that these these

these categories that at one point you thought gained you

something inside of a religious community no longer gain you

anything inside the religious community.

What matters is your your, your union with Christ.

What matters is that and in that language that you've put on

Christ, that you've heard the word in Jesus's language and

you're trying to do it. You're wrestling it out.

Yeah. And in that, in that

redefinition of family from Jesus, I think there's so much

like hope. I was just thinking, you know,

that this this would give hope to to the slave, to the Gentile,

to those who had been on the outside.

And even in our modern contacts, we think of those as we're

talking about family. Our families are so complicated.

There is so much brokenness. There are those who are

estranged from their biological families who have never known

that kind of intact close love in the family and Jesus, that's

such a for me is such a profound hope that he's he's opening this

up. He's saying you are now my

mother and my brother and you are one with me and you are part

of this family now and there's that that hope in that.

But then we can also see there how on the other side, there are

those of us who have been privileged to be what would

have, who would have been the free, who would have been the

Jew. And in our modern context, maybe

who are very comfortable with our our family of origin and who

see ourselves as secure. And there's maybe also that

challenge then, and how do we we fully live with one another in

this new spiritual family in a way that that Jesus is calling

us to. So yeah, I don't know if you had

any further thoughts on on that. Yeah, it's, it's hard, right?

You get, you get these moments where, you know, there there's

an individual who wants to bury his deceased parent and, and he

says let the dead bury the dead. So there's like an urgency to it

and a sense in which, yeah, we're called into a different

community. You don't want to dishonor,

right? Like you also you.

How do you honor your father and mother and also follow Jesus who

says leave? Yeah, leave your your family to

some degree, right. And follow me.

The early call to two of the fishermen.

They leave James and John, right?

They leave their fathers equity in the boat and they followed

Jesus. Like if I'm that dad and be

like, wait, what? Yeah, like maybe he's cheering

them on. Maybe it's like you guys go like

this is everything you wanted go.

We don't, we don't know, Like we don't get that.

But there is this seemingly there's this call repeated

throughout Scripture that it does mean leaving to some degree

your your family of origin. I think it is the challenge that

I see is to those who would, who would consider themselves

inside. And again, that's dangerous,

like kind of problematic language.

But if you consider yourself part of the church, I think the

burden is on us to choose to be family.

Yeah, for one another. Um, and I like that that

becomes, I think that that's where the, the burden lies.

The the burden doesn't lie on the one who is wrestling out

their own broken family and who's trying to enter into a

community of faith. The burden is on those of us who

are in again, inside, but who are those of us who are part of

the community to change, like, to live in such a way that it it

radically alters this individual's definition of

family. Yeah, know that I think that's

the the piece that I would want our people to hear for sure.

Like if you're part of our church have been a part of KPC

for a while, like I think the burdens on us.

Yeah. So I don't know if that answers

the question necessarily, but I, you know, I think back to when

we came like my family first, first arrived here and we had

moved like we moved from out of town.

We sold our house. We bought a house before we

bought a house. Like we were receiving emails

from multiple people with like the title, but like, you want to

be our neighbor? Like this house is popped up for

sale. And like we had people, we had

people watching like, you know, for houses that were popping up.

We have people. Yeah.

We had people calling and saying, hey, if you know, if you

need you come move in with us. Like live with us for a little

while until you until you find a place here.

And when we showed up, it was like, it was like there was this

community of people, not the whole like I'm not.

So our entire community was very welcoming, like our entire

church was very welcoming and embracing of us.

But there was like a small group of families who basically said

you're ours now. Yeah.

Like you're in, you're part of us.

You're one of us. You're gonna do some things like

you're going to come for a meal. We're gonna drop meals off.

We're going to come clean the house with you.

Once we bought a house, right? Like it was almost like there

were, there were, there were these people just intentionally

said we were. You're like, we're in your life

now because you're in our. Life.

And it was incredible, the gift that that was to us.

And I think some of the time we, we don't want to be like an

imposition. Yeah.

On people like. Well, like we'll let you get

settled and you tell us what you need.

You need what you need and and then you know, and we're here.

Yeah. And like the beauty of it for us

was like, we had people were just like, Nope, we're in,

we're, we're, we're at, like, we're here for you and showing

up. And that was a, a beautiful,

incredible thing for us. It was a gift to our family and

it changed the way we landed here like it did.

And so I think that's the piece that I want people to really

wrestle with is like, yeah, embrace people and don't give

them the opportunity to, like, just sit forever on the outside

of things. I'm doing air quotes if you're

listening, right? Like it's again challenging

language. So that would be my, that would

be my challenge to like the every day member of the church,

churchgoer, like choose to be that person who just shows up

like, Yep, yeah, you're, you're, you're you're asked now.

Yeah, this is this is what that means.

And you're going to come for lunch and, you know, whatever

that, whatever that can look like, I think, yeah, bonuses on

us. And we need to be the ones to

embrace. I think that's the direction.

Yeah, and even just using that language, I think maybe it's a

Christian cliche calling each other brothers and sisters in

Christ. But you know, it really does

change. I think the way we look at each

other when we do start realizing this is not just my coworker or,

you know, someone I have a again, we use that a language

sometimes a transactional relationship with, but this is

this is family God. That is what Jesus calls us now.

We are part of one another and we are to care for each other

the way we would care for our own flesh and blood families.

Yeah. And it doesn't mean it's going

to be perfect. Yeah, the church is not a

perfect family. And I think that's the other

thing that we need to realize is it it doesn't just because you

call somebody family doesn't mean that OHS suddenly

everything's happy and wonderful all the time.

What it means is that you don't have a choice.

Yeah, to love this person. Yes, they're in it for the long

haul. Exactly.

Yeah. Exactly.

And, and you can you can like one another to varying degrees.

You can enter in and out of conflict like there's Show me a

family without conflict and I'll show you somebody who's

wrestling with seeing things accurately or lying.

Yeah, about the way things actually are, having a hard time

processing stuff, whatever. But like, every single family

has conflict in it. And what?

What the the difference is that, you know, so when I think about

like, think, think about your family of origin growing up or

think about your family now, like you have conflict.

They're still your family at the end of the day.

And when that conflict is done, they're still your family.

Yeah. And there's no getting around

that. So that's the piece for us as a

church is like, it shapes everything.

It's not that. It's not that there won't be

conflict. There will absolutely be

conflict. What what changes is, oh, these

are still the people I'm called love and serve and yeah, live

life with after the conflict is done.

Yeah, so let's do conflict differently.

Yeah. And that's, I think the piece,

right, is it's it defines our community differently and it

shapes our community differently.

And it like, yeah, it's no longer something that I believe

you can just walk away from. Yeah, that's the piece.

It's like this is choose to be here and choose the land and

choose to be in it through the conflict.

Yeah, that that's, those are the harder days for sure of

community, but I think that's the challenge to love well that

you're talking about is, is in the good days and the bad days.

Yeah. Yeah.

Definitely. So I think that's where we're

gonna land. Yeah, for today.

And we hope that this encourages you and challenges you.

Maybe if I can leave you with one lingering question, it might

be to think about how the language of family causes you to

initially react. Like does it make your like, it

doesn't make your anxiety, your eyes a little bit Or does it

settle you into something that is familiar, like familiar and

peaceful and loving, But what direction does it push you in?

And then in that to kind of think through what your

relationship to others inside of a community might might look

like if you thought about it more along the lines of family,

how you called the love somebody well inside of inside of the

church. And what's one thing you could

do to help somebody belong before they believe?

Yeah. So again, thanks for tuning in.

Only thanks for joining me. Yeah, thanks for having me

again. Great.

And like Justin, I said last week, you're going to see

multiple hosts rolling throughout the remainder of the

summer vacation and preaching schedule, all of it taking into

account. But we hope that you enjoy our

episodes through the summer and that they help you have good

conversation throughout your week.